Friday, September 29, 2006

Earls dinner, blogging, divorce, keeping babies entertained, knowing people better

The dinner at Earls was pretty cool. I discussed the fortune cookie game with Andrea and Jen, who seemed to find it at least mildly entertaining. Karen asked what I'd done this week, so I told her about the UBC show... not her style, as she likes Destiny's Child and similar stuff. Vivian was telling her about the Mariah Carey concert, and mentioned weed: Jen thought that it was pretty commonplace, like at a Radiohead concert. I guess we don't think of Mariah Carey fans as hardcore stoners, haha. For some reason, Dylan told Randal that he would come, but didn't end up coming... so we had like two or three empty tables right by us! (reservations for 20 falling through, anyone?)

I actually managed to discuss a lot with Randal, since he was sitting near me: the different ethnic foods we've tried (Mexican / Russian / Greek / Afghan / etc.), Richmond, walking in his neighborhood, Bathroom Readers (he says he read a LOT of it the night I gave one to him for his birthday), beer, Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale (the waitress didn't understand when I said "IPA".. I'm talking like the resident beer geeks Jon and Jeremy here, haha!), dark ale, Guinness (thick and bitter), Jeremy's homebrew (I told him to ask Jeremy / Dallas / Jon about how to make it if he wants to make wine too), and shrimp salad. (which we both ended up having)

He used to do watercolors, but not anymore... he does have a painting of his parents, however. Also, he used to write on a website, but discontinued it for lack of material. His dad gardens, like Ivan's dad does / used to. We kinda cook for ourselves since we're not at home, but our moms make us bring home a LOT of food / soups! I told him about the squid soup story, and he said that he had dinner at his parents' place on Saturdays. Once I brought up that torrent of recipes, he seemed interested: no, I haven't tried them out yet! Then he said that I *did* look like my dad, so I joked that my sister had been planting ideas in his head, haha. (he IS her hero for the "flipping over creamers" thing, after all...) He'd had a four-hour dentist appointment earlier in the week... ouch! Of course, I told him about my week even though he didn't really ask: making conversation can be good!

Jen asked me what was going on with my blog since she hasn't checked it in a long time: not much is new! Randal and I also talked about blogging in general, bookmarking sites (I update this thing every day!), email, photos, etc. He says I can email him since he gets like ten real emails a day: way cool! I asked if he had called me before the birthday celebration, and he had... since I wasn't answering, he emailed me instead and got my reply that I was in the shower. Dude, I definitely don't mind if you call me... just don't start to do as someone else does and call my dad to see where I am! (she also called me the night of the Hylozoists show, but got no answer since I didn't get home till past midnight... I don't think she called my dad that night, but I dunno)

Baby Benjamin seemed to be having fun with the drink menu booklet, flipping it around and trying to open it: whatever keeps the kiddies entertained! There were a few near misses with Randal's food and some cutlery / glasses, but things seemed to be fine because Ivan was on the lookout and trying to confine Ben's hands to a certain space. The baby's so cute and chubby, heh. Andrea asked about Nathan's Sunday dinner: she has family dinners on Sundays, but might drop by later since it's so close to her place. (we'll still love her whether she brings dessert or not, although I was bugging her about our doing the exact opposite) She was surprised when she got my email back yesterday saying that tonight's dinner was at Earls because Randal had left her off the email list to inform them of the change of plans, so of course she had to bug him a bit about it. That reminded me of the night that Karen had cancelled Bible Study and failed to let me know since she left ME off that list: Eric popped on MSN, and I went to church not knowing any better... ah well, it's all in the past now.

Jen asked what was up with my MSN name: I told her that it was something I'd just made up, and that Eric thought it was totally disgusting. She disagreed with his assessment, and figured that my name wasn't bad at all, haha. (so there you go!) I also told her a bit about the bus tour I'll be going on: my mom went there four years ago, also on a "big spawning run year" since she felt my dad needed to get away from certain things that went down at his workplace. (BAD COLLEGE!) Someone brought up an Encyclopedia of Beer that Phil was reading when Pastor Edward was talking to them about something: I think the talk was the Spiritual Formation program that I missed since Eric was in Vancouver already. No, the beer book definitely wasn't homework... but I can see Jon or Jeremy having that type of thing around their places!

Randal and I had to share his chocolate mousse since he couldn't finish it all: very filling stuff, that. Ivan got a penne side for free since he'd ordered Caesar salad instead, so a bunch of us ate that for him too. Speaking of salad... Jen, Randal, and I were all going to order pizza. However, we all ordered salads instead! (chicken and shrimp) Andrea drove me home, and told me not to worry about certain things. We discussed divorce since she thought I'd told her about Jasmine being divorced. Well, she also is... but Andrea was mixing Nina and Jasmine up. (unless she meant Yazmine, with whom I don't communicate anymore since she ended our friendship over 50 cents!) So then we talked about how society views committment these days, and how it didn't seem to happen as often in our parents' generation... obviously, cases of abuse and such (like Nina's) can't really be categorized under committment problems! Good times with people, although I only spoke briefly to Shally / Stella / Billy / Vivian, and didn't talk at all to Shally's male friend.

Speaking of blogging, I should probably check my friends' blogs since I may not have time to do so tomorrow before I leave for Awana. Yikes, I haven't called Henry yet... hope he remembers without a reminder, or I'll call him tomorrow! Vivian has stuff about the Mariah Carey concert (with pictures and set list), Steph has stuff about the Elton John concert (with pictures), Spoz has this list of bands he's seen (plus reflections on holidays and weekender pictures), and Dave is singing the praises of Chinese NeoCitran. (warm Coke with a slice of lemon) It's not too bad, as I've tried it before!

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